CN1239351C

CN1239351C - Method and device for prodn and filing of containers

Info

Publication number: CN1239351C
Application number: CNB018208967A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 汉斯·魏斯; 贝尔恩德·汉森
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2000-12-19
Filing date: 2001-12-11
Publication date: 2006-02-01
Anticipated expiration: 2021-12-11
Also published as: AU3456502A; CN1481317A; JP3950053B2; AU2002234565B2; CA2430960A1; CA2430960C; MXPA03005459A; KR100815071B1; KR20030068184A; ES2251522T3; EP1343693A2; JP2004523431A; WO2002049821A3; EP1343693B1; US7357893B2; US20040065983A1; WO2002049821A2; DE50108038D1; DE10063282A1; ATE309136T1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for the production and filing of containers (12), whereby at least one tube (3) of plastified plastic material is extruded into an open mould (6), the tube (3) is bonded at the advancing end thereof on closing the mould (6) to give the container base and the tube (3) is severed above the mould, by a separating element (21) to give a filling opening. The mould (6) with the tube (3), comprising a filling opening, is moved to a filling position, in which the container is filled after the above is formed in the mould by means of generating an expanding pressure gradient acting on the tube (3). During the movement of the mould (6) into the filling position the filling opening of the tube (3) is covered by means of a sterile barrier (23).

Description

Be used to produce method and apparatus with filing of containers

Technical field

The present invention relates to a kind of method that is used to produce with filing of containers.In addition, the invention still further relates to a kind of equipment that is used to implement described method that has.

Background technology

Such method and apparatus is at US-A-5,962,039 and JP-A-600-49919 in obtain describing.These known methods allow to carry out automatically in a kind of cost-efficient mode moulding (blow molding or vacuum forming), filling and the sealing of container.If produce high responsive product; it for example is the pharmaceuticals product that must reach the aseptic packaging international standard; then mould is when moving to the loading position; must be under the so-called aseptic charge space (ASR); in this aseptic charge space; aseptic air flows through the filling opening that container is opened; and produced the actv. protection; to prevent that bacterium from entering; till this state lasted till filling process always movably top clamp is closed after finishing, wherein closing of top clamp was for the vacuum bonding process by combination desirable container top sealing to be set.

In known method and apparatus; the filling opening is protected by aseptic charge space effectively in the loading position; yet; the filling opening that is not covered from the process of extruding position transfer at mould is not protected fully; even this technology also is like this in clean room; wherein, the flexible pipe of moulding is cut off under extrusion nozzle in above-mentioned transfer process.In other words, carry out the transition in the process of loading position at mould, the flexible pipe with filling opening has formed one at open-topped container.

Though JP-A-4147824 proposes, but at the opening that in the process that mould is moved to the loading position, covers flexible pipe by a heated cylinder, and US-A-5,261,545 disclosed on the filling opening, install one can be by the plate of infrared ray heating, so that reduce bacterial number; Yet even in this case, when changing each production position, the filling opening also has a bit of time to expose at least, and the inside that so just has container is by the danger of bacterium or other particle contamination.

Summary of the invention

From the prior art, the purpose of this invention is to provide a kind of method and a kind of equipment, can guarantee preferably not covering the protection of filling opening.According to the present invention, described purpose is to be achieved in a kind of method of type of the present invention and in a kind of equipment with feature of the present invention.

According to the present invention, a kind of method that is used to produce with filing of containers is proposed, wherein at least one plasticized plastic material flexible pipe is squeezed in the mould of opening, when described mould is closed, the front end of described flexible pipe is bonded so that form the bottom of container, by producing a pressure gradient that acts on the flexible pipe and described flexible pipe is expanded, make described flexible pipe in described die for molding, after this, by a breakaway-element above mould with described hose cutting-off, so that form a filling opening, and described mould together is moved to the loading position with the flexible pipe that has opening, on this loading position, container is loaded, and moves in the process of loading position at described mould, and the filling opening of described flexible pipe is covered by an aseptic baffle plate, it is characterized in that: described aseptic baffle plate can together move with the breakaway-element that cuts off described flexible pipe by one, heatable plate constitutes, and described plate is heated to sterilising temp.

According to the present invention, a kind of equipment that is used to produce with filing of containers is also proposed, described equipment has at least one mould that has removable mold wall, in described mould, clamp-on at least one plasticized plastic material flexible pipe, for the front end by the bonding described flexible pipe of pasting together of boundaries on the mold component so that form container bottom, can close described mold component, described equipment also has a device that produces pressure gradient, described pressure gradient acts on the described flexible pipe and flexible pipe is expanded, so that container molding on mold wall, described equipment also has a movably breakaway-element, described breakaway-element can move between the initial position of a retraction and an operating position, so that form the filling opening by above mould, cutting off described flexible pipe, described equipment also has a mobile device, be used for mould is moved to the loading position so that by the filling opening container is loaded, wherein, an aseptic baffle plate is set, the structure of this aseptic baffle plate and being sized to, when described breakaway-element is on the operating position, described aseptic baffle plate is positioned on the path that mould leads to the loading position and has covered the filling opening, it is characterized in that: being provided with one can together move with the cutting edge as breakaway-element, heatable plate is as aseptic baffle plate.

Because aseptic baffle plate can together move with the breakaway-element that cuts off flexible pipe by one, heatable plate constitutes, so so not only prevented after cutting off flexible pipe before mould reaches aseptic charge space, foreign body drops into the possibility in the filling opening of opening, and aseptic baffle plate has also stoped bacterium to enter into the filling opening in this stage.Therefore method of the present invention and device of the present invention are particularly suitable for being applied to the production of high sensitive product in medical science/pharmaceutical field.

Aseptic baffle plate can together move with the breakaway-element that cuts off flexible pipe by one, heatable plate constitutes, and this plate is heated to sterilising temp, preferably is higher than 150 ℃.Because this plate moves with the cutting edge that cuts off flexible pipe, so when the flexible pipe moulding, the heated baffle plate of filling opening covers, immediate shipment is filled out mouth and is not covered all the time.

According to the present invention, described plate is heated to above 170 ℃ temperature.

If breakaway-element is a cutting edge that is connected to distance continuously on the heatable plate, situation is particularly advantageous.

If front end is equipped with the heatable plate of the cutting edge that is used to cut off flexible pipe and moves to an operating position from a retraction initial position, its moving direction makes this plate be placed in mould and enters on the mobile route of loading position, its move mode makes the filling opening all be covered by described plate in moving to the whole distance of loading position, and after mould arrives the loading position, described plate and cutting edge return to initial position from operating position, so just can obtain a short-period cost-efficient process.

According to the present invention, described heatable plate is a multiple-structure, and is made by corrosion-resistant steel at the skin on roomy surface at least.

Description of drawings

Below with reference to accompanying drawing, the present invention is described in more detail, wherein

Fig. 1 is that a blow mold of opening and one are positioned at the rough schematic that described mould top is used for plasticized plastic material flexible pipe is carried out to the extruder head of type;

Fig. 2 is after being sent to the container that loading position and moulding be loaded, the blow mold shown in Figure 1 that part is closed; With

Fig. 3 is a perspective diagram after greatly simplifying to Fig. 5, has clearly illustrated the process of the inventive method.

The specific embodiment

Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 have shown parts, these parts for example are used in the structure of traditional bottle packing (bottlepack ) system, be used for producing plastic container in blow molding technology, the flexible pipe 3 of melting plastics is by extruding between two mold halfs 5 that parts 1 are squeezed into a mould 6, as shown in Figure 1.After flexible pipe 3 was squeezed in the mould of opening 6, this flexible pipe was cut off between the top of the jet expansion of extruding parts 1 and mould 6.In Fig. 1, cut off line and be represented as dotted line, and be denoted as 8.Fig. 2 has shown the mould 6 that is in the part closed condition, the molded part that is used for flexible pipe 3 is shaped to container 12 is that mold half 5 is in contact with one another, thereby make and finish an adhesion process, so that flexible pipe 3 is sealed on the bonding seam 9 on the bottom surface (Fig. 2) at the bottom pasting together of boundaries 7 of flexible pipe 3 lower ends.

Fig. 2 has shown the mould 6 in the loading position, wherein compares with position shown in Figure 1, and described mould is towards the position horizontal transfer of extruding parts 1.On this loading position, previous in type container 12 by filling opening 15 content of packing into, is imported the air blast air by an air-supply axle that does not demonstrate simultaneously by the filling opening of opening 15.Fig. 2 has shown the end of for this reason inserting the filling axle 11 of filling opening 15.The moulding of container and charging also can replace the air-supply-filling built-up shaft of the air-supply axle of filling axle 11 and above-mentioned insertion to realize by one.

In loading position shown in Figure 2; described mould is positioned under the so-called aseptic charge space (ASR); described aseptic charge space does not show in Fig. 2; it has played the effect of the sterility protection cover of filling opening 15, and described filling opening 15 is formed by the separation process that first forward position 8 pairs of flexible pipes of defiber 3 shown in Figure 1 carry out.After container 12 had been loaded, filling axle 11 was upwards removed, and the removable bonding fixture of opening originally on mould 6 tops 13 is incorporated into together, so that realize the moulding of container neck and/or simultaneously by the described anchor clamps of bonding sealing.Form the outside thread that is suitable for spiral cover by means of bonding fixture illustrated in figures 1 and 2 13 at the neck of container, described spiral cover can provide carrying out bonding osed top simultaneously in addition, and this lid for example can be a kind of spiral cover that has a perforated pins.

Fig. 3 to Fig. 5 based on an example, the process that has shown method of the present invention by the diagrammatic sketch of very big simplification, wherein in this example, in order to produce two containers that volume is little simultaneously, by extruding parts 1 two flexible pipes 3 are squeezed in the die cavity arranged side by side of opening mould 6, see Fig. 3, wherein mould 6 is only represented by the outline line of mold half 5, and described mold half 5 can move along the direction shown in the double-head arrow 22, so that open or close mould.

Fig. 3 is presented to cut off and extrudes flexible pipe 3 operational phase before, one can be heated the initial position that cutting edge 21 and heatable plate 23 are in retraction, the wherein said cutting edge 21 that heats is as breakaway-element, and the front end of heatable plate 23 has been installed described cutting edge 21, so that adjacent with described cutting edge.In order to cut off flexible pipe 3, plate 23 and cutting edge 21 move to operating position from initial position shown in Figure 3, and wherein said plate 23 and cutting edge 21 can move front and back on the direction shown in the double-head arrow 25, see Fig. 4.

The inside of the heatable plate 23 that its surface is made by corrosion-resistant steel is implanted one do not have the heater block that shows, the behavior of this heater block is by temperature sensor 27 controls.Plate 23 together is heated to sterilising temp with cutting edge 21, preferably be heated to about about 200 ℃ temperature, this model 23 just is equivalent to an aseptic baffle plate, when this aseptic baffle plate is positioned at its previous operating position, is on the opening 15 that flexible pipe 3 forms in separation process.In next procedure shown in Figure 4, mould 6 is transferred to loading position shown in Figure 4 along the direction shown in the double-head arrow 29 from extruding position (Fig. 3) subsequently, at this moment the filling opening 15 opened of mould 6 tops is placed under the plate 23, described plate 23 rests on the previous operating position, and therefore described filling opening 15 is covered by described aseptic baffle plate.Fig. 4 has shown serviceability, and wherein mould 6 has arrived the loading position, and filling opening 15 is under the aseptic charge space 31 then.As can be seen from Fig. 4, plate 23 extends distance enough far away along the path that mould 6 leads to the loading position, thereby makes the whole zone of this mobile route all be capped, and mouth 15 only just leaves plate 23 after it has entered aseptic charge space 31 zone is filled out in immediate shipment.

Only after reaching the loading position, plate 23 and cutting edge 21 just are withdrawn into initial position from previous operating position once more, and wherein cutting edge 21 is in initial position again, extrude the flexible pipe 3 that forms in the cycle so that be breaking at next time, see Fig. 5.

The front has an example that can heat the heatable plate 23 of cutting edge 21 with front end an essential characteristic of the present invention has been described; this feature is; the filling opening that forms in being extruded the cutting-off process of flexible pipe is in its moulding; till the loading position of its arrival, cover by an aseptic baffle plate by aseptic charge space 31 protections always.Have to be noted that and also may adopt different types of breakaway-element and different structure, heatable, the framing member that constitutes an aseptic baffle plate in principle.Like this, for example, the metal filament that can dispose a heating substitutes cutter type cutting edge 21, perhaps uses the fine-structure mesh grid replacing plate 23 of its heatable, very close openings of sizes in micrometer range.Shown in Fig. 3 to 5, this method can be applied to produce simultaneously a plurality of containers, preferably a plurality of small volume containers that occur with the ampoule form perhaps are used to produce such container, and wherein each container can be independently by extruding flexible pipe production in an operating cycle.Described container can be by blow molding, perhaps under the very little situation of container volume, by vacuum forming.

Claims

1. one kind is used for producing and the method for filing of containers (12), wherein at least one plasticized plastic material flexible pipe (3) is squeezed in the mould of opening (6), when described mould (6) when closing, the front end of described flexible pipe (3) is bonded so that form the bottom of container, act on the pressure gradient that flexible pipe (3) is gone up and described flexible pipe (3) is expanded by producing one, make described flexible pipe (3) moulding in described mould (6), after this, described flexible pipe (3) is cut off in mould (6) top by a breakaway-element, so that form a filling opening (15), and described mould (6) together is moved to the loading position with the flexible pipe (3) that has opening (15), on this loading position, container (12) is loaded, move in the process of loading position at described mould (6), the filling opening (15) of described flexible pipe (3) is covered by an aseptic baffle plate, it is characterized in that: described aseptic baffle plate can together move with the breakaway-element that cuts off described flexible pipe (3) by one, heatable plate (23) constitutes, and described plate is heated to sterilising temp.

2. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that: described heatable plate (23) is heated to above 150 ℃ sterilising temp.

3. method according to claim 2 is characterized in that: described breakaway-element is a cutting edge (21) that is connected to distance continuously on the described heatable plate (23).

4. method according to claim 3, it is characterized in that: in order to cut off described flexible pipe (3), described heatable plate (23) together moves to an operating position from the initial position of a retraction with the cutting edge (21) that is arranged in its front edge, its direction that moves makes described plate (23) be placed in described mould (6) and enters on the mobile route of loading position, described like this filling opening (15) is all covered by described plate (23) in the whole distance that moves to the loading position, and, after described mould (6) arrived the loading position, described plate (23) and cutting edge (21) returned to initial position from operating position.

5. according to the described method of one of claim 2 to 4, it is characterized in that: described plate (23) is heated to above 170 ℃ temperature.

6. according to the described method of one of claim 1 to 4, it is characterized in that: in order to produce a plurality of containers (12) simultaneously, many plasticized plastic material flexible pipes (3) are squeezed in the mould that is made from multiple components (6), and described flexible pipe (3) is together cut off by described breakaway-element.

7. according to the described method of one of claim 1 to 4, it is characterized in that: with a blow molding die (6) as mould, produce pressure gradient by supplying with air blast like this, this pressure gradient acts on flexible pipe (3) and goes up and make described flexible pipe (3) to expand, thus container molding (12).

8. according to the described method of one of claim 1 to 4, it is characterized in that: adopt a kind of mould, wherein act on described flexible pipe (3) and go up and make described flexible pipe (3) to expand so that the pressure gradient of container molding (12), described pressure is by the negative pressure generation that occurs between mold wall and flexible pipe (3) outside.

9. one kind is used for producing and the equipment of filing of containers (12), described equipment has at least one mould that has removable mold wall (6), in described mould (6), clamp-on at least one plasticized plastic material flexible pipe (3), for the front end by the bonding described flexible pipe of the pasting together of boundaries on the mold component (7) (3) so that form container bottom, can close described mold component, described equipment also has a device that produces pressure gradient, described pressure gradient acts on described flexible pipe (3) and goes up and make flexible pipe (3) to expand, so that container molding on mold wall (12), described equipment also has a movably breakaway-element, described breakaway-element can move between the initial position of a retraction and an operating position, so that form filling opening (45) by cutting off described flexible pipe (3) in mould (6) top, described equipment also has a mobile device, be used for mould (6) is moved to the loading position so that by filling opening (15) container (12) is loaded, wherein, an aseptic baffle plate is set, the structure of this aseptic baffle plate and being sized to, when described breakaway-element is on the operating position, described aseptic baffle plate is positioned on the path that mould (6) leads to the loading position and has covered filling opening (15), it is characterized in that: being provided with one can together move with the cutting edge (21) as breakaway-element, heatable plate (23) is as aseptic baffle plate.

10. equipment according to claim 9, it is characterized in that: described cutting edge (21) is heatable and arranges along the front edge of described plate (23) to distance continuously, and, in the process of cutting off flexible pipe (3), described plate (23) can move to the operating position of covering mould (6) mobile route along the horizontal direction of mould (6) mobile route from the initial position of its retraction.

11. according to claim 9 or 10 described equipment, it is characterized in that: described heatable plate (23) has its in-to-in heating arrangement of implantation and at least one is used to control the sensor for measuring temperature (27) of this heating arrangement.

12. equipment according to claim 11 is characterized in that: described heatable plate (23) is a multiple-structure, and is made by corrosion-resistant steel at the skin on roomy surface at least.